Technology and public policy: The failure of giant power

Interconnections of utilities, stimulated by shortages of power during World War I, and the availability of high-voltage transmission technology encouraged projects for regional electrification years before the TVA was established. Morris Llewellyn Cooke, a progressive and controversial engineer, and Gifford Pinchot, the governor of Pennsylvania, proposed a regional electrification plan for Pennsylvania in 1923. The plan boldly called for mine mouth power plants, by-producting of bituminous coal before firing, rural electrification, and a statewide high-voltage transmission system as a common carrier. The plan, named Giant Power, embodied far more than recent technology-it expressed economic and political attitudes as well as advocated social change through electrification. Support for Giant Power was well organized, but opposition, eapecially of the utilities, ran strong. The nontechnological impact was seen as a radical challenge to existing trends and institutions in the electric power industry. The history of Giant Power is a reminder that technology is a social concern stimulating fervid debate and dramatic confrontation.